Lipolytic enzymes are known to be useful in detergents to improve the removal of fatty stains. Thus, in recent years Lipolase.RTM., a microbial lipase derived from the fungus Thermomyces lanuginosus (also called Humicola lanuginosa), has been introduced into many commercial brands of detergent.
Other microbial lipases have also been suggested for use in detergents, e.g. bacterial lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia (U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,024), from Streptomycetes (WO 94/14940) and from Gongronella butleri strain NRRL 3521 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,634,195, the strain was previously named Absidia butleri, see K. H. Domsch et al., Compendium of Soil Fungi, Academic Press 1980, p. 381).
Many detergents are alkaline with a high pH in solution (e.g. around pH 10) and contain a builder to bind Ca.sup.++ ions, so there is a need for lipolytic enzymes with high activity at high pH in the absence of Ca.sup.++.